THR 8 weeks out from Surgery

[Sammiemac]

Found this forum due to another sleepless night. It is comforting to know I’m not going crazy. I had a little break down earlier tonight with my husband, telling him how frustrated I was. He wants to help me, but I don’t know what to tell him. He’s been so wonderful doing everything around the house. I just feel stuck.
I’m going to PT 3 times a week, which gets me out of the house. I’m not driving yet. I had right hip replacement, posterior surgery. I limp without a cane. Getting up out of a chair, bed or couch still gives me pain and I unstable so I need a cane.
Anyone having knee or back issues? My surgery hip is longer so it’s hard to extend my knee when I walk.

 

[djklaugh]

@Sammiemac Welcome to BoneSmart! What is the date of your surgery? Hip replacement is major surgery and it can take a while to heal and recuperate. It is not unusual at all for knee and back .... and other areas of the body as well.... to have aches and pains. It also is quite normal to have sleep disturbances. If you limped on a bad hip for quite a while it can take time to get all the muscles and tendons back to working as they should. It also might be that 3 times a week of PT is over doing things a bit for you.

Are you elevating the leg and applying ice packs to your hip? Those 2 things can help ease soreness and reduce swelling. And again it is normal to have some down days after major surgery ... pain and reduced activities is depressing. One can get to feeling like this is going on forever .... but really you are getting better over time. Dear husbands (and other support people) do try to help and yes it can be frustrating and upsetting trying to tell them what you need it terms of help and support.

Hip Recovery: The Guidelines
1. Don’t worry: Your body will heal all by itself. Relax, let it, don't try and hurry it, don’t worry about any symptoms now, they are almost certainly temporary.
2. Control discomfort:
rest
elevate
ice
take your pain meds by prescription schedule (not when pain starts!)
3. Do what you want to do BUT
a. If it hurts, don't do it and don't allow anyone - especially a physical therapist - to do it to you
b. If your leg swells more or gets stiffer in the 24 hours after doing it, don't do it again.
4. PT or exercise can be useful BUT take note of these
BoneSmart philosophy for sensible post op therapy
5. At week 4 and after you should follow this
Activity progression for THRs
6. Access these pages on the website
Oral And Intravenous Pain Medications
Wound Care In Hospital

The Recovery articles:
Pain management and the pain chart
Healing: how long does it take?
Chart representation of THR recovery

Dislocation risk and 90 degree rule
Energy drain for THRs
Pain and swelling control: elevation is the key

Post op blues is a reality - be prepared for it
Myth busting: on getting addicted to pain meds
Sleep deprivation is pretty much inevitable - but what causes it?

BIG TIP: Hips actually don't need any exercise to get better. They do a pretty good job of it all on their own if given half a chance. Trouble is, people don't give them a chance and end up with all sorts of aches and pains and sore spots. All they need is the best therapy which is walking and even then not to excess.
We try to keep the forum a positive and safe place for our members to talk about their questions or concerns and to report successes with their joint replacement surgery.
While members may create as many threads as they like in a majority of BoneSmart's forums, we ask that each member have only one recovery thread. This policy makes it easier to go back and review history before providing advice.

 

[Caison113]

Welcome @Sammiemac to the club no one wants to be a part of. That said, the people here are pretty great and you will get a wealth of experience from the various stories to be told. At 8 weeks, in my opinion, you should not be limping and having trouble getting up, absent complicating factors. The leg length differential is fairly common but usually resolves by 3 or 4 months. All that said, every recovery is different. One thing to consider is your PT. Hip PT is really not necessary -- what you need is rest, ice, elevation and walking. Have you been doing PT the whole time? Often that can cause its own issues.

 

[Eman85]

As you'll read on here and be told 8 weeks is still early on in the total recovery. Limps are hard to get rid of. If you're doing and have been doing PT for the whole time you might be doing a bit much and being counter productive. just my finding but walking slow with good posture for just a few steps was more productive than any PT or distance walking. Just walking was enough PT, plenty of time in a few months to worry about any strengthening. I could drive pretty early on so I would go to a walking path and practice walking or go to the big store and practice with a shopping cart as a support.

 

[Merrimay]

At almost 5 months, I've had SI issues and pain in my nonoperative hip. I continue to work on correcting a limp in the nonop leg as well. If you're worried, best to run it by your OS or PT. But for some of us, this can be part of our journey...

 

[myglasshalffull]

It's great to have a wonderful and understanding partner but sometimes we just need to sit and cry. Right? Yes, that was me in my recovery. I think only people who have had a hip replaced can relate to another person going through recovery. Sure your friends can sympathize with you but it's just not the same.
It's best to walk good using walker, crutches or whatever you are using than to limp w/o apparatus assistance.
I've done no formal PT, just some stretching and walking, I'm up to 3 miles per day again...hooray!
Might have taken me longer to get here but I did slow and steady approach.